


I shall count and bury the dead

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [143]
Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Identity Issues, Methos is OLD, Old Age, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-05-23
Packaged: 2017-12-12 18:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/814876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duncan's hand is on his sword, and tears are on his face, and he splutters out a horrified question, but he does not want an honest answer.</p><p>No one ever wants an <i>honest answer</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I shall count and bury the dead

**Author's Note:**

> Title: I shall count and bury the dead  
> Fandom: Highlander  
> Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Sylvia Plath  
> Warnings: future!fic  
> Pairings: none  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 325  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: Any, Any, You don't know everything about me.

Duncan stares at Methos with horrified eyes, swallowing compulsively, mouth opening and closing - but he doesn't say a thing. He gasps for air, seeking _something_ , and Methos waits.

Methos always waits.

He is Death. Death is the end of all things.

Duncan had known that - Cassandra saw to it. But Methos helped kill his brothers, and he kept his head down, and he deferred to Duncan, and Duncan had moved beyond it.

Five thousand years. Of course there's a past there. And morals change. The world is no longer flat and suddenly things are crimes that never were before, and Methos learns, yes. Oh how he learns.

And Duncan's hand is on his sword, and tears are on his face, and he splutters out a horrified question, but he does not want an honest answer.

No one ever wants an _honest answer_.

Five thousand years. Longer, even. How can you count years before counting is invented? You can't. You just pick a nice round number, something suitably ancient, and you pretend.

You lie.

Methos lies. Methos lies a lot. He has written history books without a whisper of truth in them, and humanity teaches what he wants taught.

And Duncan swings the sword because Methos has finally done something so evil he must be destroyed, his essence stolen, everything he's done forgotten.

Methos will not be forgotten. Methos will not die.

Duncan has known Adam Pierson, and Adam Pierson as Methos -

Duncan has not yet met Death.

Duncan knows nothing. He is a child, playacting a man, playacting some sort of guardian for the mayfly humans, and he believes he is _right_ and _just_ and _good_.

And maybe he is. Maybe he's the best man in the world, in the entire history of the bloodstained rock –

But Methos will not let Duncan kill him.

And if Duncan wants to die today, then Methos will allow it.

So Death raises his head and draws his sword.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fanmix: Primordial](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2698001) by [gigglingkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigglingkat/pseuds/gigglingkat)




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